LONDON, Nov 10: A Boeing 777 wide-body aircraft set an endurance record for a non-stop commercial flight on Thursday, travelling more than 22 hours eastwards from Hong Kong to London.

The aircraft, with 35 passengers and crew aboard, flew more than half way around the world, covering 11,664 nautical miles, or 21,601 kilometres.

Along with five Boeing 777 pilots, Commander Asif Reza, Senior Vice-President, Flight Operations, PIA was in command, and was assisted by Capt Muhammad Illyas Malik, designated as Check Pilot Boeing 777 in PIA, to fly the aircraft as Boeing’s “Launch Customer”, pending delivery of this first plane to PIA registered in Pakistan AP-BGY. A Singapore Airlines pilot was also on board as Singapore Airline is evaluating this aeroplane after PIA.

The event was reminiscent of another such record-breaking flight by PIA nearly four decades earlier when Commander Abdullah Baig, flying the newly manufactured Boeing 720, eased into a jet stream during cruise with consummate skill, to break the London-Karachi flight time record.

The 777-200LR (longer range) Worldliner plane touched down at London’s Heathrow airport in Boeing’s blue and white livery, with the word “experimental” over the forward door.

Officials from the Guinness World Records were on hand at London’s Heathrow Airport to verify the record as the world’s longest commercial flight.

The plane flew from Hong Kong to London, going the long way round over North America in a flight which lasted 22 hours and 42 minutes.

Captain Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann, one of the pilots, said the plane had two hours of fuel left when it landed.

Asked why they did not keep going, she said: “You have to declare your route before you set off.”

She told reporters that air traffic controllers, unaware the flight was trying to break a record, had offered the pilots vectors, or short cuts, to speed up the journey.

“We kept being offered vectors and, strange for a pilot, we kept saying no we want to stay on our route,” she said.

The first Boeing 777-200LR will be delivered to Pakistan International Airlines in early 2006. The plane can carry about 300 passengers.

Randy Tinseth, director of product marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes said the plane’s long-range capabilities, by using two rather than four fuel-efficient engines, would save airlines about 2 million gallons of fuel per year.—Agencies